Healer from the Himalayas

Nandini Sarkar meets Dr Sant S, a humble yet powerful disciple of Swami Rama, who is working to heal and help suffering humanity

Caption: Sant sitting in meditation with a school friend in Trinidad

A client of mine was in deep physical pain and depression. He was diagnosed with a spinal compression that made him bed-ridden. For two months, he tried ayurveda and physiotherapy but received little relief. Around this time, I came across Dr Sant S Dharamananda’s book, Mystic Experiences with Himalayan Masters. A direct disciple of the great Swami Rama of the Himalayas, Santji, as he is popularly known, has healed many, without charging money. Swami Rama gifted him a shawl that he had used during his meditative years in the Himalayas. When someone in real distress requests healing, Santji wraps Swami Rama’s shawl around himself, invokes his Master’s presence, then chants sacred Sanskrit mantras for healing. In his book, Mystic Experiences, he reports miraculous healings and many instances of help to the distressed, which he attributes to Swami Rama’s invisible intervention.

Impressed with the claims in his book, and seeking help for my esteemed client, I wrote Santji an email, requesting help. Frankly, I did not expect a response. Who helps anyone without a motive, anyway? I had also approached him without any reference. To my surprise, after two weeks, I received a warm reply from Santji. He agreed to bless and help my distressed client. He kept his word and did a healing for my client without charging any money or asking for anything in return. Today, when I spoke to my client he told me cheerfully that he had re-joined work and was soon going to board a flight for an outstation meeting. While exchanging mails with Santji, he told me that some time back, a man and a woman had appeared to him in a vision during meditation, and asked me to send my picture and that of my client. He wanted to check if we were the same people he had seen in meditation. I was slightly sceptical at first but did send him my picture. I have a mole below my lower lip on the left cheek which is small and does not show up in my pictures. Hence, I was surprised when Santji wrote back to me stating that it was indeed my face that he had seen in meditation but with a mole on the right cheek! This was more than a coincidence so I was convinced we had something here. Santji also mentioned that we had known each other in a past life and whether I rejected or accepted it, it was a verity. The mole incident and his generous, spontaneous help to my client, without even knowing us, made me believe this was possible. After all, we have all been linked in countless births and the re-surfacing of past-life relationships has only one strong message for us: we are one big family – vasudhaiva kutumbakam – so why not reach out and help each other selflessly?

Personally, that is why reading this book, Mystic Experiences with Himalayan Masters, was important for me. Even sincere spiritual practitioners hit a wall during distressing times, not knowing where to turn for help and what to do. This book re-kindles faith. It gently gets you to review how you handle life’s bouncers. It tells us that God is genuinely interested in us and a sincere call to Him can actually solve all our problems. There are numerous examples, spread over 55 chapters, of how you can make this simple faith work for you. Indeed, of what value are spiritual tools and techniques unless they can connect us directly with God or the Universal Self, the source of all power, love, light, joy, wisdom, bliss, healing and abundance? A book like Mystic Experiences is a guide to a genuine God-connect, which the famous mystic, Brother Lawrence, called the Best Rule of Holy life. As an impressionable young child, I saw a movie in which the actor portraying Sai Baba said: if you take one step towards me, I will take 10 steps towards you. I believed this and practised this and it gave me great courage to face life with its inherent ups and downs. In chapter after chapter, the Himalayan Masters, with whom Santji interacts, demonstrate this 1:10 “Faith Multiplier” i.e one ounce of faith will attract back 10 ounces of divine grace. This is not begging for divine favours. It is simply reclaiming our lost heritage as children of God. Just like a king who dreams that he is a pauper living in slums and then wakes up to see himself lying on his kingly bed, we too have to wake up to our divine potential, this book underlines. Truly, dry techniques can never give us what faith and love can – instant nirvana!

Yellow light and the unknown voice

While I will leave readers to check out the book (downloadable from Amazon, Kindle) I would like to recount a moving incident. Santji was born in a family of Hindu priests in Trinidad and Tobago. As one of nine children in a priest’s family, his early life was full of struggle and hard work with multiple family chores. Naturally, there was very little time for study. Then the time came for him to appear for a National School Entrance Exam. The teacher predicted to his father that Santji was doomed to failure. Shocked and dismayed, that night, Santji sat in the cow pen and cried for an hour to God, seeking His help. “O Lord, please help me pass the exams so that I can save my father’s prestige,” he cried. Suddenly, he heard a male voice in the evening nightfall: “Everything will be fine, beta,” it said. Santji thought the cow was speaking to him and was very frightened. He ran home and did not eat that night, thinking that he was possessed by spirits. On the eve of the exam, he fervently reminded God to help him since he had spent all his time in doing chores for the family. Sweating and teary when the exam paper was handed to him, Santji noticed a small point of yellow light travelling randomly over the question paper and stopping at certain answers. He started ticking the highlighted answers. This continued till all the questions had been solved. When the exam result was declared Santji’s name figured among the top 50 meritorious students! Twenty eight years later, when Santji met his Master, Swami Rama in Minneapolis, USA, for the first time, he was surprised to be greeted with the words: “So, we meet again, beta.” He recalled the voice instantly as the one he had heard as a child, in the cow pen, when he sat crying to God. His life had come full circle. Inspired by Swami Rama’s message of selfless love and giving, Santji went on to establish the Himalayan Foundation in the US, which sponsors higher education for underprivileged students. The Foundation has already sponsored 103 students to the University of Wisconsin Stout of which 40 students have completed their Master’s degrees. For the Himalayan Foundation, this is just “a unique experience of offering love to the Himalayan masters.”

The following is a scintillating interview with Dr Sant S Dharamananda, PhD, healer, philanthropist, businessman and mystic.

Often, when a person experiences pain, his or her first reaction is, “Why me?” The second reaction is, “What can I do to relieve my pain or who will help me?” What would the Himalayan masters recommend?

When a tragedy happens to a person, the ‘why me question,’ is called the ‘Denial Stage’. The individual cannot accept the pain experienced by him. Pain is a physiological emotion experienced by the mind only in the waking state of our existence. When a person is completely asleep, he or she does not feel pain. It is only upon waking again that the pain comes back to the person’s mind. The second reaction is “What can I do to relieve my pain or who can help me?” This is called the acceptance stage. The Himalayan masters can take the pain from a person and offer it to a tree or stone or river or an animal. A tree is categorised as ‘jad jeeva’ or ‘unconscious life’ which has no response to pain unlike a conscious creature. We humans are categorised as ‘chetana jeeva’, thus, we experience pain and suffering in the mind field, known as the ‘manomaya kosha’. Most Himalayan masters can absorb the painful experiences from their beloved disciples and burn them out with their high level of energy, redirecting their karmic activities. Some masters can use mantras or ceremonies and help remove the pain from people. I recommend that people with severe pain should use less spicy food and engage in regular prayers to bring quietness and peace to the mind.

What is the method adopted by you to help people who face physical pain? Why do you feel the urge to help such people since you do not charge any fees for the healing?

I simply go to the lotus feet of my Gurudev, requesting him to help me bring relief to the person in pain. I use specific Sanskrit mantras that I have chanted for over 200,000 times. In some cases, I have chanted certain mantras up to three million times. The mantra shakti or potency helps me to observe the Doer within the healing energies as the healing energies are channelled to the person. The reason I do not have a fee structure for healing people is because I believe that God is the source of power and energy, who does the healing in others. I am only the observer of the Doer, and I am not the doer. By the blessings of my master, I am able to access that information and energy to share it with the disadvantaged who are sick, hungry and homeless. Baba said, “If you want to know God, then serve the sick, the needy and the homeless.” I do not charge for my service in healing the sick and homeless because it is the compassion in my heart that creates this healing potency. I cannot make a business out of the love for God. It will take away the true purpose and blessings of my life.

In your book, Mystic Experiences with Himalayan Masters, you repeatedly highlight your belief, through real-life examples, that a simple prayer from the heart is enough to touch God and to receive His response. Can you describe some prayers that you have used to reach out to God and receive His response?

When I met my master, Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas in 1987, he gave me his meditation shawl which he used in the Himalayan forest for over 15 years. He gave me a few ‘beeja mantras’ that were over 20,000 years old, handed down in the oral tradition by the Himalayan monks. Baba said, “Beta, chant these mantras every day for 10 years and you will experience the efficacy of mantra medicine.” In my book, you can read my experiences about mantra medicine, where I helped a little girl in the Minneapolis Children Hospital. Seven doctors could not find a cure for this child who was swollen from head to feet. After five days, the doctors had no idea what to do with the child. I used some of Baba’s mantras and the child was cured in 17 minutes. I experienced interesting healing potencies with these mantras on patients from hospitals in Canada, Minneapolis, New York, Trinidad and Tobago.

What is the mission of the Himalayan masters?

The Himalayan masters are here on Earth to help raise the world’s consciousness to bring enlightenment to mankind. They balance the good and evil in different countries around the world. They bring joy and happiness in the minds of those who are seeking enlightenment as they live in remote caves of the Himalayas. I went up to 7,000 feet on the Tarkeshwara mountains of Himalayas, also known as the abode of Lord Shiva. These masters do not necessarily follow the laws of matter like me and you. They can travel through space without a body. They can appear and disappear as they please. They can appear in your home and give you a blessing or take away your difficulties or stand in front of your door steps, when Lord Yamraj is coming to take the soul from loved ones. These masters can protect their disciples in numerous ways – that I have seen in my own life.

The layperson can connect with them by creating the desired consciousness to seek their ‘darshan.’ You have to build that level of awareness through prayers, meditation or selfless services towards other creatures. In some cases, just by the touch of these mystic yogis, a person can gain complete transformation known as ‘shaktipat’.

I was very fortunate in many past lives to be connected with the Himalayan yogis, Now that I took birth outside of India, the yogis came to the West and blessed me in the USA and in my birth land of Trinidad and Tobago.

Do you agree with Neale Donald Walsch that an ordinary person without any special talents or virtues can talk to God? How can this become a reality in our lives?

I do not have to go very far to agree with modern-day Neale Donald Walsch. Let us take the example of the relationship between Shabari and Lord Rama in the epic, Ramayana. She was considered to be the lowest of the low, and she met Lord Rama in the forest of the Himalayas. She fed him berries which he ate with tremendous joy. Shabari got moksha by the grace of Lord Rama. Because of the blessing from Matanga Rishi, Shabari met the Lord in person. When we totally surrender ourselves, we can experience that supreme state of divine bliss.

Neem Karoli Baba said, “I love sorrows because they bring me closer to God.” Is this statement pessimistic? Can only sorrows bring us closer to God?

In the 6000-year-old Mahabharat, Kunti said to Lord Krishna, “Please give me sorrows in my next lives so I can remember the Lord.” The sorrows of life allow us to remain humble and stay connected to God. Neem Karoli Baba is known as one of the giant yogis of the Himalayas. He was not pessimistic in his lifestyle and belief. Pessimism is a false state of an afflicted ego. Neem Karoli Baba had the direct blessings of Lord Hanuman in the Himalayas. He could manifest food from a blanket and feed thousands of children in the forest. He wanted to be humble and saw sorrow as a way of engaging with the Divine in us. Sorrows are like the heat of the fire that boils our milk of life, and separates the ghee of wisdom from the maya of our material milk.

Some people are uncomfortable with the spiritual commandment, Love God. They ask, “How can we love God whom we have never seen?”

God is invisible in us just like the breath is invisible in the nose. Without the breath there is no life. Yet when we go to sleep, who is breathing in us? Because we cannot remember anything in the sleep state, will we also forget to breathe? So this is proof that God is the one who is breathing in us when we are asleep. We do not have to see Him to believe that he is in us every second of our lives. People feel uncomfortable with the commandment – Love God, because they do not know how to love themselves. Love is a divine quality that emanates from the ‘anahat chakra’ or the heart chakra. The majority of people in the world function from the lower three chakra, namely: muladhara, swaddhisthana and Manipura.

Bio: Nandini Sarkar is Co-founder, C-Quel, a management services company. A lover of the spiritual Masters she is a follower in the Kriya Yoga tradition. nandini@cquel.com